We hold to the principle that the communist party must be a multinational party and representative of the entire working class within the borders of the U.S. In the last year, both the subjective and objective conditions developing within the U.S. have placed the task of bringing this new party into being more immediately than ever before. The deepening imperialist crisis – with its devastating effects on the living conditions of the American people and its particularly brutal attacks on the oppressed nationalities—in the forms of unemployment, welfare cutbacks and police repression—poses a challenge to all communists. The need for revolutionary leadership of the developing upsurge of the workers and oppressed people in the U.S. is a burning one.
The subjective conditions—manifested in the development of the ideological struggle within the communist movement—have also developed considerably in the last year. Increasingly, a Marxist-Leninist line has developed in opposition to both right and “left” deviations on the national question and other questions central to a program for revolution in the U.S. This development has laid the basis for communist unity, on a party level, to be forged over the next period.
The current situation reflects a change from three years or even one year ago. Within the U.S., national forms of communist organization reflected the objective realities of a communist movement which was very young and primitive. This condition of “many centers” was, and still is, for the most part, the legacy of the revisionists who took over the once-revolutionary CPUSA. National forms of communist organization have played an important role in bringing Marxism-Leninism to a large number of minority workers and contributing to the practical and ideological development of the communist movement. The decisive characteristic of these organizations is not their national make-up but rather their class stand and political line.
But conditions do not remain the same. There are still some forces who (in one form or another) continue to hold the line of “separate Marxist-Leninist parties” or national forms of organization, instead of a multinational party or national organization. This line, when raised to a principle, objectively represents a step backward today.
There are many communists of minority nationalities who have come forward into the ranks of the multinational communist movement. Many are playing a leading role in the O.L. and other multinational groupings. All communists must be seen as equals in the party. Of course, we must take into account the class and national background of each cadre, but the decisive question in judging communists is one of political line and practice. We stand, in principle, for multinational organization of communists. We reject the idea of a separate stage in which new communist organizations along national lines must be built. We also reject the “federationist” approach to party-building, i.e., building the party as an association of autonomous, national groupings.
Within a communist organization, and particularly within the new party, the national question must be given special organizational consideration. Significant numbers of Marxist-Leninists are emerging from the Black liberation movement, reflecting the growing influence of the Black workers within the united front.
Black communists represent the highest hopes and aspirations of the Black masses. These comrades have become part of the new, growing, communist movement and along with other communists are dealing real blows to both white chauvinism and to petit-bourgeois nationalism within the revolutionary ranks.
To build and strengthen the growing multinational unity in the communist movement, it is essential that a consistent fight against white chauvinism be waged within our ranks. Because the class struggle within the O.L. and other communist organizations reflects, in many ways, the class struggle in society, bourgeois ideology must continuously be fought within our ranks. The main aspect of this bourgeois thinking is white chauvinism, which among revolutionaries, eats away at the internal cohesion and fighting capacity of the organization and will drive workers away from our ranks. It serves to weaken the role of minority comrades and to keep them weak and disunified. It also serves to build narrow nationalism as its by-product.
The O.L. organizational policies must ensure special training and development of national minority communists within our own ranks to counter the relative position they have been forced to occupy in U.S. society and to help prepare them as leaders in the class struggle and the struggle to build a new communist party.
Presently, within the O.L., and in the future within the party, nationality commissions are established to aid the center in overseeing the organization’s work among the people of particular nationalities. For example, the Afro-American commission has the responsibility to suggest policies and programs and oversee their implementation among Afro-American people. One example is to develop special studies and programs to deal with the special oppression of Afro-Americans in the factories and communities. This commission has the additional responsibility of aiding in the theoretical development of the O.L.’s position on the national question, and supervising the training and development of Afro-American cadres. Finally, the Afro-American commission, along with other nationality commissions, must play an important role in carrying out the struggle against white chauvinism.
Another principle of organization is that the white comrades have a special duty, apart from their responsibility of doing work among the entire working class, to see to it that work among the white workers is done well, educating them in the spirit of unity which as whites they can do best. Consistent work must be carried on in fighting chauvinism and winning the white workers to take up the just struggles of Black and other nationally oppressed people.
This should be done in the closest cooperation with minority comrades, who in turn, have a special responsibility to combat the bourgeois line of exclusiveness and narrow nationalism among the minority workers and peoples, as well as their general tasks of giving leadership to the overall class and national movements. This insures the development of proletarian internationalism both within the organization and in its mass work.
Because of the national question, the Black masses, both North and South, have found national forms of organization valuable for waging their struggle. While our objective is working class unity, we encourage the development of national forms of organization where appropriate, as they often express a high working class content. These organizations, while national in form, should not be based on “national exclusiveness” or narrow nationalism, but rather be reflective of the conditions and struggle in a given situation, such as in an all-Black community, etc.